GEMENT AND BUDGET 

OLOGY POLICY 

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

August 30, 2019 

M-1 9-25 

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECU\IVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES 

FROM: RUSSELL 

ACTING DIRECTOR, 

T. VOUGH-0L 

OFFICE OF 

\j 

MA 

~ 

DR. KELVIN K. DROEGEMEIER 

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SCIEN 

SUBJECT: Fiscal Year 2021 Administration Research and Development Budget Priorities 

.. We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free 

the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries, and 

technologies of tomorrow. " 

President Donald J. Trump, 2017 Inaugural Address 

America's rise as the global leader in science and technology (S&T) began shortly after 

World War II, during which the Federal Government began investing significantly in basic and 

applied research, infrastructure, and education across many disciplines. From then until nowduring America's First Bold Era in S&T- these Federal investments helped create a massive, 

multisector American S&T enterprise consisting of Federal agencies, world-leading colleges and 

universities, private industry, non-profit organizations, and Federal and National Laboratories. 

The resulting extraordinary discoveries and innovations laid the foundation for today's 

Second Bold Era in S&T-one characterized by unprecedented knowledge, access to data and 

computing resources, ubiquitous and instant communication, and technologies that allow us to 

peer into the inner workings of atomic particles as well as the vastness of the universe. 

Unfortunately, this Second Bold Era also features new and extraordinary threats which must be 

confronted thoughtfully and effectively. 

The Trump Administration is firmly committed to continuing American S&T leadership 

iri the Second Bold Era. Success will depend, in large part, on our ability to leverage- in 

entirely new and creative partnership and collaborative frameworks- the multisector S&T 

enterprise that emerged during the First Bold Era. It will depend upon striking a balance 

between the openness of our research ecosystem and the protection of our ideas and research 

outcomes. It will depend upon ensuring that our research environments are diverse, safe, 

inclusive, and accommodating as well as free from unnecessary administrative burdens. Success 

will depend upon ensuring that research is conducted with integrity and respect, which are 

foundational not only to the research process, but to the trust placed in the research enterprise by 

American taxpayers and reflective of America's values. 
This Fiscal Year 2021 (FY2021) R&D Budget Priorities memorandum provides direction 

to enable this Second Bold Era as part of a longer-term, multisector, national strategy to advance 

bold, transformational leaps in S&T, build a diverse workforce of the future, solve previously 

intractable grand challenges, and ensure America remains the global S&T leader for generations 

to come. 

GENERAL GUIDANCE FOR FY2021 

For FY2021, the five R&D budgetary priorities in this memorandum ensure that America 

remains at the forefront of scientific progress, national and economic security, and personal wellbeing, while continuing to serve as the standard-bearer for today's emerging technologies and 

Industries of the Future. This memorandum also describes five high-priority crosscutting 

actions that span all five R&D budgetary priorities and require departments and agencies to 

coordinate, collaborate, and partner with one another and with the other sectors of the S&T 

enterprise to maximize success. 

R&D BUDGET ARY PRIORITIES 

1. American Security 

The 2018 National Defense Strategy calls for leadership in research, technology, 

invention, and innovation to "ensure we will be able to fight and win the wars of the future.'tl As 

adversaries leverage emerging and disruptive technologies to threaten the Nation, it is imperative 

that we invest in R&D to remain at the leading edge of S&T, maintain military superiority, 

remain agile in the face of existing and new threats, and keep the American people safe. 

Advanced Military Capabilities: Relevant departments and agencies should invest in R&D to 

deliver the advanced military capabilities that will help meet emerging threats and protect 

American security into the future, including offensive and defensive hypersonic weapons 

capabilities, resilient national security space systems, and modernized and flexible strategic and 

nonstrategic nuclear deterrent capabilities. 

Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Departments and agencies should invest in critical 

infrastructure R&D that improves resilience to natural disasters and physical threats, including 

extreme terrestrial events, cyber and electromagnetic pulse attacks, and exploitation of supply 

chain vulnerabilities. Departments and agencies should prioritize investments in space weather 

R&D according to the 2019 National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan2 and, where 

applicable, pay specific attention to improving research to operations and operations to research 

capabilities. 

1 Department of Defense. "Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America." 

https ://dod .defense. gov/Portals/ l /Documents/pubs/20 18-N ational-Defense-Strategy-Summary. pdf. 2 NSTC. "National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan." https://www.whitehouse.gov/wpcontent/uploads/20 I 9/03/National-Space-Weather-Strategy-and-Action-Plan-20 I 9.pdf. 

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Semiconductors: Departments and agencies, working in collaboration with industry and 

academic partners where appropriate, should prioritize investments that will enable whole of 

government access to trusted and assured microelectronics for future computing and storage 

paradigms, consistent with the Executive Order on Securing the Information and 

Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain.3 

Critical Minerals: The Executive Order on a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable 

Supplies of Critical Minerals identifies innovation and R&D as key to reducing vulnerabilities 

and building supply chain resilience for rare earths and critical minerals.4 Priorities include 

developing recycling and reprocessing technologies, identifying substitute materials, and 

developing new and improved processes for critical mineral extraction, separation, refining, and 

alloying. 

2. American Leadership in Industries of the Future 

The Trump Administration continues to prioritize the technologies that power Industries 

of the Future (IotF). These industries promise to fuel American prosperity, improve quality of 

life and national security, and create high-paying jobs for American workers. Sustained, 

strategic R&D investment in these emerging technologies and the materials, manufacturing, and 

computing that support them will advance American S&T leadership in the short term and 

catalyze discoveries and innovations that will shape the global S&T landscape for the decades 

ahead. 

Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Information Science, and Computing: Departments and 

agencies should prioritize basic and applied research investments that are consistent with the 

2019 Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence5 and the 

eight strategies detailed in the 2019 update of the National Artificial Intelligence Research and 

Development Strategic Plan.

6 Consistent with the 2018 National Quantum Initiative AcP and the 

2018 National Defense Authorization Act,8 departments and agencies should prioritize R&D 

advancing fundamental QIS, building and strengthening the workforce, engaging industry, and 

providing infrastructure supporting QIS while coordinating relevant activities to ensure 

intelligence, defense, and civilian efforts grow synergistically. In terms of computing, 

departments and agencies should work together to explore new applications in and support R&D 

for high performance future computing paradigms, fabrication, devices, and architectures 

3 Executive Order on Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-securi ng-in formation-communications-technologyservices-suppl y-chai n/. 4 A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals. 

https:/ /www.commerce.gov/news/reports/20 19/06/federal-strategy-ensure-secure-and-rel iab le-supplies-critical-minerals. 5 Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-maintain ing-american-leadership-artificial-intell igence/. 6 NSTC. "The National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan: 2019 Update." 

https://www .nitrd.gov/pubs/National-A I-RD-Strategy-2019.pdf. 7 Public Law 115-368. 8 Public Law 115-91. 

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alongside sustainable and interoperable software; data maintenance and curation; and appropriate 

security. 

Advanced Communications Networks and Autonomy: Departments and agencies should support 

the development and deployment of advanced communications networks by prioritizing R&D 

consistent with the National Spectrum R&D Strategy. They should prioritize R&D to lower 

barriers to the deployment of surface, air, and marine autonomous vehicles with a focus on 

developing operating standards, integration approaches, traffic management systems, and 

defense/security operations. Departments and agencies should prioritize R&D that enables 

electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing and civil supersonic aircraft, including for type certification, 

the creation of over-land supersonic flight noise standards, and low-sonic-boom aircraft research. 

Advanced Manufacturing: Department and agency R&D investments should support the goals in 

the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) report, Strategies for American 

Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing.9 Priorities include smart and digital manufacturing and 

advanced industrial robotics, especially systems enabled by the industrial internet of things, 

machine learning, and AI. Departments and agencies should focus on methods for low-cost 

distributed manufacturing and continuous manufacturing, including investments in bio-based 

manufacturing to ensure domestic access to needed medicines. 

3. American Energy and Environmental Leadership . Advancing energy technologies, understanding our unexplored ocean and expanding use 

of ocean data, and improving our Earth system prediction capabilities are Administration 

priorities that will enhance the nation's economic vitality, national security, and environmental 

quality. 

Energy: Departments and agencies should invest in early-stage, innovative research and 

technologies that show promise for harnessing American energy resources safely and efficiently, 

inclusive of nuclear, renewable, and fossil energy. Federally funded energy R&D should 

continue to reflect an increased reliance on the private sector to fund later-stage research, 

development, and commercialization of energy production and storage technologies, including 

supporting user facilities that can improve multisector collaboration. Relevant department and 

agencies should invest in nuclear energy R&D, including further development of advanced 

reactor technologies and reestablishing an American fast neutron irradiation capability through 

the versatile advanced test reactor. 

Oceans: Departments and agencies should prioritize new and emerging technologies and 

collaborative approaches to efficiently map, explore, and characterize the resources of the U.S. 

exclusive economic zone. Departments and agencies should also focus on processing and 

making publically available data that characterize natural resources and human activities and on 

9 NSTC. "Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing." 

https:/ /www.manufacturing.gov/news/announcements/20 I 8/ I 0/strategv-american-leadersh ip-advanced-manu facturing. 

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R&D thafimproves understanding of and supports effective responses to changes in the ocean 

system. 

Earth System Predictability: Knowing the extent to which components of the Earth system are 

practicably predictable - from individual thunderstorms to long-term global change- is vitally 

important for physical understanding of the Earth system, assessing the value of prediction 

results, guiding Federal investments, developing effective policy, and improving predictive 

skill. Departments and agencies should prioritize R&D that helps quantify Earth system 

predictability across multiple phenomena, time, and space scales. Strategic coordination and 

leveraging of resources across agencies on research and modeling efforts is needed to accelerate 

progress in this area. Additionally, agencies should emphasize how measures of and limits to 

predictability, both theoretical and actual, can inform a wide array of stakeholders. They also 

should explore the application of AI and adaptive observing systems to enhance predictive skill, 

along with strategies for obtaining substantial improvements in computational model 

performance and spatial resolution across all scales. 

4. American Health & Bioeconomic Innovation 

American medical and biotechnology breakthroughs have enhanced the quality and 

longevity of life for countless people around the world. The Trump Administration continues to 

focus R&D on key research breakthroughs and solutions that improve the health of our veterans 

and individuals of all ages, while enabling new opportunities in the Bioeconomy. 

Biomedicine: Departments and agencies should prioritize R&D investments aimed at combatting 

the opioid crisis, rapid detection and containment of infectious diseases, anti-microbial resistance, 

chronic disease prevention and treatment, gene therapy, neuroscience, medical countermeasures 

and public health preparedness, eradicating HIV/ AIDS once and for all, and enhancing the 

independence, safety, and wellness of aging Americans and individuals with disabilities. 

Departments and agencies should coordinate and collaborate with each other and with public and 

private stakeholders to ensure that existing and new sources of medical and health-related data are 

handled in the best interest of patients with regards to security, interoperability, privacy, 

accessibility, and portability. 

Veteran Health and Wellness: The President's Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a 

National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS) 10 directs research on the social determinants of health 

and underlying risk factors to prevent veteran suicide. Departments and agencies should identify 

R&D investments, consistent with the Executive Order on a National Roadmap to Empower 

Veterans and End Suicide, that focus on cohesive, cross-agency efforts; leverage data sharing 

and integration to derive new insights into brain health and suicide from existing studies or data 

sets; and seek opportunities for immediate knowledge translation and real-world application. 

10 Executive Order on a National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Suicide. 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-national-roadmap-empower-veterans-end-suicide/ 

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Bioeconomy: The American Bioeconomy represents the infrastructure, innovation, products, 

technology, and data derived from biologically-related processes and science that drive economic 

growth, promote health, and increase public benefit. The increasing economic value and public 

benefits derived from the research, innovation, and applications in the biological and agricultural 

sciences need to be better measured, promoted, and safeguarded. Departments and agencies 

should prioritize evidence-based standards and research to rapidly establish microorganism, plant, 

and animal safety and efficacy for products developed using gene editing, to better accelerate 

biotechnology product adoption and socially responsible use. Additionally, departments and 

agencies should focus on R&D that enables biotechnology, omics, scientific collections, 

biosecurity, and data analytics to drive economic growth across multiple sectors including 

healthcare, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and agriculture. 

5. American Space Exploration and Commercialization 

R&D investments should continue to leverage efforts underway at American universities 

and in the private sector and focus on ensuring American leadership in space by supporting the 

Trump Administration's call for a return of Americans to the Moon's surface by 2024 and 

utilizing the Moon as a proving-ground for a future human mission to Mars. 

Departments and agencies should prioritize in-situ resource utilization on the Moon and 

Mars, cryogenic fuel storage and management, in-space manufacturing and assembly, and 

advanced space-related power and propulsion capabilities. Departments and agencies should 

also prioritize activities that ensure an industrial base for commercial activity in space and that 

will broadly speed private-sector progress in meeting stated Government goals and furthering the 

space economy. Finally, departments and agencies should seek opportunities to work with 

advanced materials, additive manufacturing, and machine learning capabilities that have broad 

potential applications in space and on Earth. 

PRIORITY CROSSCUTTING ACTIONS 

1. Build and Leverage a Diverse, Highly Skilled American Workforce 

The Trump Administration's 2018 report, Charting a Course for Success: America's 

Strategy for STEM Education (STEM Strategy), articulates a vision that "all Americans will have 

lifelong access to high quality STEM education and the United States will be the global leader in 

STEM literacy, innovation, and employment." ' 1 Achieving this vision depends on a multisector 

seamless STEM education and training ecosystem that can meet the needs of all Americans from 

all backgrounds and ZIP codes and can adapt to the changing, and often growing, demands for 

ST_EM knowledge and skills in both the workplace and in everyday life. 

11 NSTC. "Charting A Course For Success: America's Strategy for STEM Education." https://www.whitehouse.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2018/ 12/STEM-Education-Strategic-Plan-2018.pdf. 

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Departments and agencies should prioritize efforts to build strong foundations for STEM 

literacy, to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, and to prepare the STEM 

workforce, including college-educated STEM workers and those working in skilled trades that 

do not require a four-year degree. 

In addition, relevant departments and agencies should identify and implement strategies 

to: help build R&D capacity at institutions that serve high proportions of underrepresented or 

underserved groups, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), tribal 

colleges and universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions; foster collaboration and 

coordination among higher education institutions, the private sector, and nonprofits to meet the 

objectives described in the STEM Strategy and the 2017 Executive Order on The White House 

Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities; 12 facilitate the advancement of early career R&D professionals; and assess the 

capabilities of their own workforces, and leverage resources that provide upskilling and 

entrepreneurial training. 

2. Create and Support Research Environments that Reflect American Values 

To advance S&T progress and ensure maximum return on taxpayer investment in R&D, the 

laboratory, the factory, the field, and any other setting where R&D is performed must welcome 

all individuals without prejudice and enable them to work safely, efficiently, ethically, and with 

respect, consistent with the American values of free inquiry, competition, openness, and fairness. 

Four high-priority areas related to research environments require significant attention: 

• Reducing administrative burdens on Federally-funded research; 13 

• Improving rigor and integrity in research; 

• Creating safe and inclusive research environments; and 

• Protecting American research assets. 

Departments and agencies should ensure that their R&D investments promote intra- and 

extra-mural research environments that address these four actions and rapidly improve or 

eliminate programs and activities that do not; and actively coordinate and collaborate with other 

R&D departments and agencies, via the NSTC Joint Committee on the Research Environment 

(JCORE), to ensure that R&D investments and policies are aligned with the four priority areas. 14 

12 Established by the 2017 Executive Order, The White House Initiative on HBCUs is charged with working with 

"agencies, private-sector employers, educational associations, philanthropic organizations, and other partners to increase 

the capacity ofHBCUs to provide the highest-quality education to an increasing number of students." 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-white-house-initiative-promote-excellenceinnovation-historically-black-colleges-universities/. 13 In addition, the PMA CAP Goal 8-"Results-Oriented Accountability for Grants"- is tackling how to streamline 

burdensome administrative requirements associated with all federal grant programs and move towards the current 

compliance paradigm towards demonstrating results. These efforts include attention to R&D grants and the burdens upon 

the research community. 14 Agencies should also actively participate on the PMA CAP Goal 8 workgroups to help build shared solutions that would 

contribute to reducing administrative burden and improving results. 

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3. Support Transformative Research of High Risk and Potentially High Reward 

Many of the greatest advances in S&T- for example, the first direct detection of 

gravitational waves-can be traced to Federal support of R&D that is intellectually challenging 

but has the potential to transform society in profound and positive ways. In order to remain the 

world leader in S&T, America must continue to support bold thinking and potentially 

transformative research ideas. 

Departments and agencies should support risk taking in their R&D investments and 

within the communities they support, and they should ensure that review processes fully consider 

the possible rewards, risks, and benefits of failure for potentially transformative research. 

Departments and agencies should describe how their investments support transformative 

research, and the impact these investments could have on American prosperity and security. 

4. Leverage the Power of Data 

The President's Management Agenda (PMA) Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal 2, 

"Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset," 15 describes three objectives: develop a long-term, 

enterprise-wide Federal Data Strategy to better govern and leverage the Federal Government's 

data; enable Government data to be accessible and useful for the American public, businesses, and 

researchers; and improve the use of data for decision-making and accountability for the U.S. 

Government, including for policy-making, innovation, oversight, and learning. 

Department and agency investments should reflect and support the objectives of CAP 

Goal 2 and the Federal Data Strategy framework. Priorities include improving data accessibility 

and security, leveraging AI and other emerging technologies, and building a data-skilled 

workforce. Departments and agencies should coordinate and collaborate with each other and 

with the private sector and nonprofits to leverage data and data tools, consistent with all 

applicable laws and regulations governing data use and sharing. 

5. Build, Strengthen, and Expand Strategic Multisector Partnerships 

Partnerships between and among R&D departments and agencies, academic institutions, 

established and startup businesses, nonprofit institutions, and others involved in the U.S. S&T 

enterprise are instrumental to building and leveraging our Nation's innovation capacity and lie at 

the core of success for the Second Bold Era of S&T. 

Departments and agencies should prioritize investments and policies that facilitate or 

strengthen multisector partnerships, including partnerships that engage institutions seeking to 

build S&T capacity, such as R2 ("high research activity") institutions, HBCUs, and community 

15 The Federal Data Strategy. http://strategy.data.gov 

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colleges; advance regional collaboration for innovation economies, such as those in Opportunity 

Zones; support research infrastructure; and further the objective of CAP Goal 14 to "Improve 

Transfer of Federally-Funded Technologies from Lab-to-Market."16 Departments and agencies 

should work together to leverage existing and create new partnerships, share best practices, data, 

user facilities, and other resources to the extent possible. Departments and agencies should 

define measures of success and describe how relevant R&D investments improve the number, 

variety, and quality of partnerships. They should also consider methods to reduce regulatory and 

administrative barriers and align incentives to facilitate multisector engagement. 

16 Jmprove Transfer of Federally-Funded Technologies from Lab-to-Market. https://www.perfonnance.gov/CAP/lab-tomarket/ 

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